The procedure of this study sends survey packets separately to
registered nurses (Form B) and their immediate supervisors
(namely, head nurses) (Form A). Form A measures employee service
performance and organizational memory, as well as a section
assessing head nurse demographic characteristics. Form B contains
the measure of knowledge sharing and a section assessing nurse
demographic characteristics. Also, the procedure of this study employs
the telephone survey as a supplementary tool to boost the response
rate. Among the 400 employee questionnaires that are
distributed, 270 are returned. Of these, 266 are usable, representing
a 66.5% response rate. The resulting sample is diverse in terms
of demographic characteristics: (a) the average nursing tenure of
the subordinate respondents is 2.1 years; (b) the average nursing
tenure of the head nurse respondents is 4.7 years; and (c) almost
all of the head nurse respondents complete university education.
The data was gathered in 2007, over roughly three months. The
study sample contains 300 observations (266 nurses and 34 head
nurses), and thus provides a valid sample size for conducting the
subsequent statistical analysis.